Mclean college mental health program

So I cannot overemphasize how important it is that campus efforts to promote mental health and to prevent suicide are multi-culturally informed across identities. Any place in which students might feel marginalized because of their identities, maybe if they're from a low social economic status or because of national origin, maybe because they identify as being a sexual and gender minority student. Wherever students are finding themselves being marginalized, it's important that colleges develop strategies for eliminating those stressors.

So for students of color encountering repeated to racism, discrimination, questions about belonging on campus microaggressions, it's not that these things are happening in isolation, it's the repeated exposure to these kinds of experiences that is highly correlated with an elevated level of psychological distress. And so schools have to get better at making sure that all of their efforts to promote mental health and wellness are really multi-culturally informed, that we're using the best of what we know from the research literature about how best to connect with communities who differ from us.

Jill Anderson: I want to hear more about some of the education efforts that I know you work on, specifically educating high school age children to recognize symptoms of mental health issues. Stephanie Pinder-Amaker: When we think about college student mental health more broadly, it's abundantly clear from the research that one of the most important things that we need to do and can do and schools are doing is to work with high school students, work with students long before they get to college to begin having these dialogues, to increase high school, middle school, grade school students even, increase their awareness of mental health issues, and also begin teaching them the skills and the strategies that they can use at the high school, secondary school level.

They sometimes refer collectively to this category as social and emotional learning skills, and developing and cultivating these skills in our young people so that they get to practice these skills and hone them long before they step foot on a college campus.

High school and middle school, those are ideal opportunities to also integrate this information into the academic curricula. Because teachers spend so many hours with students, they're uniquely positioned to ensure that students have a increased knowledge base about how to take care of their mental health. Jill Anderson: Societally, we focus a lot on getting our kids into college.

There's a lot of pressure to do that. And then we leave them and drive away. And are there things parents can be doing once they get their kid to school to ensure that they stay well? Stephanie Pinder-Amaker: Absolutely. And I really want parents to feel increasingly empowered around these issues. It's so important for a number of reasons. When we survey parents and ask them, "How likely is it that a young person will encounter a mental health issue in college?

So there's a disconnect there. So there are tons of things that parents can do. One, they can work with students at the high school level, help students work with their children to help them think about fit for college in a more holistic way.

So we want to think about campus fit about academics, yes. But we also want to support children in asking, "How will my emotional wellbeing or my sense of belonging be both fostered and challenged in this particular campus environment?

The construct of emotional preparedness is a really helpful one. We use it often with parents. And it means working with your child to think about your child's ability to do four things. Number one, to take care of themselves and the campus environment. Number two, to control negative feelings and behaviors. Number three, to build healthy relationships. And number four, to adapt to new environments.

I love the emotional preparedness construct because these are terms that everyone can use and think about. And so, if you sit with your child and help them begin think about, "Well, how am I doing in these areas? How is my ability to take care of myself? Do they know how to get a healthy meal when no one's home to prepare dinner? Do they know how to manage their money properly? It's important because when we survey first year students and we ask them, "What's going well in your college transition?

Where are the challenges? Where are the bumps? Where are you succeeding? They're more likely to rate their college experience as terrible or poor, and more likely to have a lower GPA. So these are skills that we want to work with children, but we can also help parents to feel skilled up so that they know how to better support and guide their children.

A third thing for parents, overwhelmingly I think it's important to begin a dialogue at home to make home a place to create an environment that says, "Yeah, we talk about our mental health in this family at the dinner table, while carpooling, we're texting about it.

Parents have the power to do that, to open up these dialogues and to give your child permission to use words like anxiety or depression or talk about thoughts of harming oneself and to make it safe and okay to name these things. It's great modeling that parents can do for their children and it also empowers their child who may not be grappling with these issues currently, but in the future when they're transitioning to college and potentially encounter one of these difficulties, if not personally, then certainly with their roommate, or a friend or a lab mate or a coworker.

The child will think back and they'll remember where those basic skills come from because parents began developing them at home. Jill Anderson: It's interesting because I think, when your child is young, we spend a lot of effort and time transitioning them from one grade to the next, to the next.

And then it just seems like it falls off when they get older. Stephanie Pinder-Amaker: Yeah, it's true. Another thing I would say to parents is to think about being proactive in preparing for this transition. Certainly, in all of the ways that we just suggested, but also real specific things like if you know your child takes medication for an illness, then make sure that there's a local doctor available to prescribe that medication.

Make sure those appointments are set up in advance. If your child needs to access accommodations at school, many of those kinds of things can be done before the student even arrives on campus. So being proactive is important.

Jill Anderson: And then once they're there, you just mentioned being proactive, but is there a easy way to walk the fine line between being annoying and being supportive?

Stephanie Pinder-Amaker: It's good to talk with your child before they leave for school, to talk in advance about what's an appropriate level of contact to have, what are the expectations around checking in or texting, and to set some expectations that are reasonable, that can feel comfortable to the parent, but also fosters a sense of growing independence and separation.

Essentially, that's the task of a young adult, is to get more comfortable being on one's own. And so, certainly, no parent wants to pull all the supports out from under a child, but think about what's going to empower your transitioning age youth to feel more a greater sense of self-efficacy. And so, for a parent, all of the decisions around how much contact is too much, "Should I intervene in this situation or stand back? If I call up the school and handle this roommate crisis for him or her or them, is that going to result in a growing sense of self-efficacy, or is that going to just perpetuate a cycle of them feeling more dependent on me?

Jill Anderson: Dr. Stephanie Pinder-Amaker is the founding director at McLean Hospital's College Mental Health Program, an initiative serving students from over institutions in higher education. She is also an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School.

I'm Jill Anderson. Thanks for listening. Author Traci Baxley shares ideas and offers support to families eager to engage with their children about issues of social justice. Economist Jeff Denning explains why college completion rates have gone up in the past few decades.

Skip to main content. About HGSE. About the Dean. Dean's Welcome. Messages from the Dean. Commentary and Media. Dean's Office. History of HGSE. Our Impact. Campus and Facilities. Office Directory. Virtual Tour. Gutman Conference Center.

Reservation Request Form. Capacities and Cost. Floor Plan. Audio Visual. Directions, Parking, and Hotels. Map of HGSE. Directions to HGSE. Work at HGSE. Title IX Information. Doctoral Degree Programs. Doctor of Education Leadership. Doctor of Philosophy in Education. Academic Calendar. Academic Catalog. Doctoral Viewbook. Master's Degree Program. Master's in Education.

Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship. Education Policy and Analysis. Human Development and Education. Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology. Teaching and Teacher Leadership. Arts and Learning. Early Childhood. Global, International, and Comparative Education.

Higher Education. Student High School Graduation Year Student Email. Birth Date. Yes, add me to the TeenLife email list. I understand that I can unsubscribe at any time.

X Please Login to add a review. To create a free member account, register here. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email. Eric Stock. Health and Medicine. Support Nonprofit Journalism. Community support is the greatest funding source for WGLT. Donations from listeners and readers means local news is available to everyone as a public service. Join the village that powers public media with your contribution. Contact Eric at ejstoc1 ilstu. See stories by Eric Stock. Related Content. A Bloomington company wants to end the trash hauling monopoly in the Twin Cities.